Cemeteries of London
by Skylark Evanson
Summary: The jade-eyed hero's eyes always watered at that and he always had to look to the street over his shoulder to keep the small darkly dressed boy from seeing the tears that he spilled. If Devlin could do it without crying, so could Ben.
1. Part 1

**A/N: wow, last night was tough to watch. I'm just saying, it was physically painful. Anyways, this came to mind a few nights ago and last night fully drove me to get it down and out. Two-shot.**

**Disclaimer: Song is owned by Coldplay. _You must listen to it._ The characters are owned by Man Of Action.**

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**_Cemeteries of London_**

**_At night they would go walking  
_**'_**til the breaking of the day,**_

Ben hated moments like this. More than once this week already, Devlin had asked to go down to the cemetery to see the headstones, to run his fingers along the names of his parents and to know that they were still down there. The brunette hero took his best friend and cousin's son down into the cemetery just a few blocks away from where the family of the Levins used to live.

_**The morning is for sleeping**_

Every time they got there, Devlin had immediately knelt down and kissed his mother's headstone, not a single tear spilling from his deep sapphire eyes. He hugged the large rock with the name 'Gwendolyn Tennyson' inscribed on it with the utmost precision.

_**Through the dark streets they go searching  
**__**To seek God in their own way, **_

Ben couldn't help but read the small words under his beloved cousin's name. She had been one of the closest family members he had ever had.

_"Gwendolyn Tennyson,_  
_Forever Mother  
Forever Wife  
__Forever Young__  
Forever Anodite__"_

The jade-eyed hero's eyes always watered at that and he always had to look to the street over his shoulder to keep the small darkly dressed boy from seeing the tears that he spilled. If Devlin could do it without crying, so could Ben.

_**Save the nighttime for your weeping  
Your weeping  
Singing la lalalala la la**_

Then the small ebony-haired boy always moved to his father's gravestone, tracing the letters with care. He always smiled at it as if the name of his dad held some deep dark secret long within his own heart. Devlin pressed two fingers to his lips and then pressed them to the freezing stone, still smiling as if this was all just a game and as if they would be back at Ben's house to pick him up any minute.

The young Levin knew it was no game.

_**And the night over London rang.**_

Ben had no idea how Devlin remained so strong. He had been born an only child to the two and he had been mistreated on more than one occasion, but he had always loved his parents more than life itself. Ben just kept watching the sapphire-eyed Devlin as he stroked the headstone of his father with some sort of longing lingering in his gaze. His vision seemed nearly haunted.

_**So we rode down to the river where the toiling ghosts strain  
for their curses to be broken **_

The hero couldn't help but let his gaze run over the letters that had been etched into his best friend's headstone, the words so simple and short that it described the once con-artist brilliantly without even trying.

_"Kevin Ethan Levin-_  
_Friend, Lover, Hero"_

That made tears prick the corners of Ben's eyes. He had known Kevin from the time he had gone from delinquent to criminal to savior. It had been a long, cold road, but the ex-con had been able to pull it off, just as Gwen said he would. The girl always held hope for him and he always held that deep love for her. That was what had kept them together from their teenage years into adulthood. It was what had brought Devlin around.

_**We'd go underneath the arches where the witches are in there saying  
There are ghost towns in the ocean**_

Devlin kept stroking his father's name before kissing the locket that had belonged to his mother that was hanging around his neck. It was the one his father had given her when they had first started dating. It was what showed her who he really was under the hard outer shell. He clutched it tightly in his fingers, kissing it to show his love for the two that now lay beneath his feet.

_**The ocean  
Singing la lalalala la la  
And the night over London rang. **_

He quietly leaned forward and fingered his mother's locket one last time before whispering to it, "I'll see you soon." Then he tucked it beneath his hooded sweatshirt again, his eyes glimmering with some sort of hope that he held onto by a thread. All he had left was hope.

_**God is in the houses and  
**__**God is in my head and all the cemeteries in London  
I see God come in my garden,**_

He stood and moved slowly back to Ben's side, taking the man's hand in his own small one. Devlin didn't breathe another word. He just watched as tears slid down Ben's face and into his brown beard that was slowly being peppered with gray and white flecks. He squeezed Ben's hand.

_**But I don't know what he said,  
For my heart, it wasn't open  
Not open**_

Ben looked down at the boy, still strong as ever. He had his father's heart and his mother's mind and some sort of twist of himself in there. "Let's go home, Devlin," breathed the hero, clutching the boy's hand as if for support. He saw a mirror of his cousin and her husband hiding within his ocean blue eyes. Another choked sob seized him, but he suppressed it, not wanting to seem weak in front of the child he now had custody over.

He had never wanted to take Devlin in. He had wanted him to live with his parents.

But that wasn't going to happen.

_**Singing la lalalala la la  
and the night over London rang.  
Singing la lalalala la la **_

"Don't worry," said Devlin as he watched Ben with a soft, sympathetic gaze. "I'll tell them that you love them."

Ben didn't ask how he planned on doing that. He could only focus on keeping his composure so that he could go home to his own son with a brave face and be grateful that Kenny still had a father to call 'Daddy'.

_**There's no light over London today.**_

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**A/N: This actually came to me before last night's episode, but I had time to get it out today, so I figured I would. It wasn't that hard either. The pain is still fresh. It's easier to put out on words. Please review. It'll mean the world to me.**

**~Sky**


	2. Part 2

**A/N: I looked at the actual lyrics from the Coldplay site and the ones that Kasta gave me were somewhat wrong. I don't want to go back and switch 'em out on the first chapter, so just know that these are very close to being exact, but a few are off. Most are alright, but a few are wrong. For real lyrics that are 100% accurate, I suggest Coldplay's real website.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Song is by Coldplay and characters are owned by MOA.**

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**Cemeteries of London**

**_At night they would go walking  
'til the breaking of the day,  
__The morning is for sleeping_**

Kenny clutched Ben's hand, wiping streaming tears away from his glittering electric green eyes. He felt his chest wanting to cave in under the masses of the pain that kept hitting him as the realization set in every waking second of his life. He buried his face in his father's shirt, unable to bear the sight that he beheld.

**_Through the dark streets they go searching  
To seek God in their own way,_**

Ben put a hand on his son's back as the small boy cried helplessly. He had been traumatized by a lot of things. He had seen more things than most kids his age had. He was about eleven at that time. Ben just let out a long sigh and wished he had done better. He had so many hopes for his son and his adopted son.

**_Save the nighttime for your weeping  
Your weeping_**

Kenny tucked himself into his father willingly. His body was enveloped in racking sobs that made him shake and quiver, not just from the cold wind that was whirling through the empty air of the cemetery's bare branched trees or the stray clouds as black as night that floated over head. Real pain had seized him and dragged him into his misery. He had lost too much to ever be able to love again without fearing the loss.

He had been the one to find the body.

**_Singing la lalalala la la  
__And the night over London rang._**

It had been a little over a week ago when Kenny had walked into his bedroom to see Devlin hanging from the bunk bed, a rope around his neck and his sapphire eyes empty. They usually twinkled with something: mischief, charm, light, anything. But when Ken saw his ocean blue orbs empty, he just knew. He just knew his best friend and brother was far-gone, his soul floating off somewhere to the freedom he always spoke of.

**_So we rode down to the river where the toiling ghosts strain  
For their curses to be broken_**

Ken had hardly had a moment of respite since. He had spent the first few minutes crying over his lost friend before paging his father using his Omnitrix to tell him that Devlin was dead. And he had been crying ever since.

Seeing the headstone made it harder for Ken to take in the truth. He didn't want Devlin to be dead. He didn't want to lose anyone else. He had lost his Aunt Gwendolyn and his Uncle Kevin. Then his best friend and cousin and adopted brother… The small brunette boy just hugged his father, praying that he wouldn't lose him too. He couldn't lose Ben. His dad was all he had left anymore.

**_We'd go underneath the arches where the witches are in there saying  
There are ghost towns in the ocean_**

Tears streamed down his cheeks. Trails stained his skin and his electric jade eyes were always watering. He hadn't slept for the longest time. He didn't want to see anyone else leave him. He was afraid that if he closed his eyes for even a second, his father or his grandfather would be gone in the blink of an eye. Kenny would rather die himself than see someone else leave him. He didn't want to let anyone else die. He wouldn't.

**_The ocean  
Singing la lalalala la la_**

Ben looked down at the newly made headstone that was glistening with fallen rain beside the two others. He looked to his best friend's stone. Then to his cousin's. Then to his adopted son's. Small tears made his jade orbs glitter, but he wouldn't let any of those tears fall. He had to be strong for Kenny, just as he had been for Devlin. Just as he had been strong all those years as a child.

The hero felt his chest tighten with the pain as his stomach knotted up. It had just sunk in what Devlin had meant. _"I'll see you soon." _Those had been his exact words. _"I'll tell them that you love them." _Horror made Ben's head spin. Devlin had been planning it all along. He had known that he would join his parents. He had loved them too deeply to let death pull them apart. The small Levin boy was always going to be with them, no matter what the pain and no matter what it took.

**_And the night over London rang._**

Kenny dropped to his friend's grave, leaving his father's side for a few moments. He took a deep breath and cried, hugging the stone that read off his brother's name, just making him see that Devlin really was dead and that he really wasn't coming back.

**_God is in the houses and  
God is in my head and all the cemeteries in London_**

In his dark silence, Ben watched as Kenny dug a tiny hole right at the base of the gravestone and dropped in something sparkling gold. He recognized it and felt a sob choke him. He looked away, still praying that he wouldn't cry. He didn't want to cry. He couldn't stand crying anymore. He already had to put Ken down every night since he would never stop crying. He hated crying, but he knew he would anyways. Tears streamed down his cheeks and raced down his skin, leaving sparkling trails.

Delicately, Ken covered up the locket with the dirt he had dug out only moments ago. A few of his spilled tears dripped on the ground as he once more hugged Devlin's headstone. He had lost his best friend. But not forever, one day in the future, he'd see Devlin again, on the other side.

**_I see God come in my garden,  
__But I don't know what he said,  
For my heart, it wasn't open_**

"Let's go," said Ben quietly, not wanting to disturb the peace of the Levins. This was their new home. He had to accept it. "Come on, Kenny." He carefully reached down to take his son's hand and help him up.

Ken turned and put his small hand into his father's, the two Tennysons closer than ever. They had survived the trauma of seeing their friends and family die right before their very eyes. They were the survivors. And neither brunette was proud to admit the survival of such traumas. They just wanted their family back.

**_Not open_**

Silence followed the two as they left the empty cemetery. The family of Gwendolyn, Kevin, and Devlin remained in the ground, lost forever on the world, heroes all wasted too young.

**_Singing la lalalala la la  
and the night over London rang._**

Ben and Ken headed out, not a word passing between the two. The father drank in a long sigh and wiped the tears from his face, not wanting anyone to see him having been crying. Not out of shame, but out or respect for his dead teammates and their son. Kevin always hated people crying. Gwen just would've told him he'd be alright and that a smoothie would make it all better. And Devlin never cried. To honor the fallen family, Ben held back his own emotions, stifling them under a mist of strong-willed determination.

He cast one look back over his shoulder, knowing he wouldn't visit them for a while. He read over the words on each headstone once more, taking in each word as it sank in that they were all truly dead.

**_Singing la lalalala la la_**

_"Gwendolyn Tennyson,_  
_Forever Mother  
Forever Wife  
Forever Young  
Forever Anodite"_

_"Kevin Ethan Levin-_  
_Friend, Lover, Hero"_

"_Devlin Levin  
__Eternally Loyal"_

**_There's no light over London today_**

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**A/N: Finished. Leave a review.**

**~Sky**


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